The Buffalo Bills made a controversial coaching change last offseason when the team moved on from Heath Farwell and promoted Matt Smiley to their special teams coordinator role.
While the Bills had a promising special teams rating the prior two years under Farwell, that only continued under Smiley in 2022.
Rick Gosselin’s annual special teams rankings are a comprehensive and well-respected breakdown of that aspect of the NFL game. In Gosselin’s ratings, the league’s 32 teams are ranked in 22 categories and assigned points according to their standing. One point is awarded to the best team and 32 points for the worst. Like in golf, the lower the score the better.
In 2022, Gosselin totaled Buffalo at 286 points. That landed the Bills at the fifth-overall spot in his rankings.
This year’s top-five were:
- 5. Bills: 286
- 4. Panthers: 277.5
- 3. Ravens: 272
- 2. Seahawks: 269.5
- 1. Texans: 255
In the two years prior, Buffalo still fared well under Farwell. The Bills had back-to-back finishes at No. 8.
Farwell was hired by the Bills in 2019. He was let go after the 2021 playoffs when Buffalo had a weird final kickoff by Tyler Bass which eventually led to the “13 seconds” affair against the Kansas City Chiefs.
In February 2022, Farwell took the Jacksonville Jaguars’ special teams coordinator job. The Jags finished 11th in Gosselin’s rankings (322.5).
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